The United States was obligated under international law, the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the Gadsden Treaty to recognize valid Spanish
and Mexican land grants located within the area ceded to it by Mexico. Previous
territorial acquisitions had shown both the legislative and executive branches
of the government that the prompt settlement of private land claims in the ceded
areas was desirable. While Congress promptly created a Board of Commissioners to
adjudicate the claims in California, it refused to meet the challenge in the
Southwest for six years, and then, it placed the arduous task of investigating
and reporting upon the claims upon the Surveyors General of the territories, who
were untrained and ill equipped to solve the legal problems which confronted
them. Congress reserved the prerogative of confirming or rejecting the claims
reported by the Surveyors General. This procedure completely broke down in 1879
following the confirmation of only a minor portion of the Southwestern private
land claims. This created untold hardships for all concerned. Finally, in 1891,
a well qualified non-partisan court was created by Congress, which, after
thirteen and a half years of diligent effort, solved the problem insofar as it
pertained to the government and its citizens.

This study traces the background of the problem and its
solution in Part One. Part Two contains an historical account of each of the
Southwestern private land claims. While source material was gathered from coast
to coast, a majority of such data was obtained from the microfilm records of the
Surveyor General's office and Court of Private Land Claims, which are contained
in the Bureau of Land Management, Santa Fe, New Mexico.